Friday, November 16, 2012

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is the victim of relentless and unfair negative news coverage, according to many of the employees and community members who talked to Terry Abbott for his study of CMS communications.

"Asked their thoughts about the news media's coverage of CMS, it didn't take long for district officials, staff, and parents to respond," Abbott wrote. "The media coverage of the district is considered almost universally among these groups to be negative."

Analysis of news coverage is a healthy thing. But the tendency to sort it into "positive" and "negative" is a lot like a doctor using "sick" and "healthy" as the only diagnostic categories -- it just doesn't tell you much. Some stories are clearly good or bad news, but most don't fit the labels. A straightforward news report can make you happy or tick you off, depending on what you think of the information being reported. Much of what I write -- including the recent front-page article on the studies commissioned by Superintendent Heath Morrison -- includes "negative" information about problems and "positive" information about efforts to solve them.

Abbott, a former press secretary for the Houston Independent School district who now runs Drive West Communications, didn't try to analyze actual coverage. He was looking for, well, problems and solutions. While his report makes it clear there's significant frustration over coverage, it also shows the same people acknowledging that the controversies my colleagues and I have covered are firmly based in reality. One of the most fascinating things about the 56-page report was getting a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes tension surrounding school closings, market-adjustment raises, unexplained principal departures, the launch of "bring your own technology" and the rollout of 2012 test scores.

The report makes it clear that rebuilding confidence will take more than pumping out more positive press releases and reviving the CMS cable channel (though those are among the recommendations). Morrison says he's working to make sure departments work more efficiently together, get their facts straight, understand public concerns and communicate clearly with employees, reporters and the public. One sure-fire way to reduce "negative" coverage is to avert the errors, delays and missteps that spawn it.

Morrison may also be trying to strike a sterner stance with the press corps. Every time he talked about the studies and employee survey results released this week, he told reporters he considers this "a test case" for coverage. He said he's taking a risk by being open about reports critical of CMS, and noted that it would be easy to pick out a few lines and sensationalize them. He told his "media partners" to consider it a homework assignment to take a more balanced approach. "I will be watching who does a good job with that and who doesn't," he said at the school board meeting.

I'm not sure how the superintendent envisions that playing out. But if nothing else, it was a brilliant strategy for making sure time-crunched reporters wade through dozens of pages of institutional analysis in search of those lines he doesn't want us to use.

Oh we get it, the CO is so tough on the CMS, we see it every day. This just means they will demand and get less transparency and less accountability that there already is. Remember the "teacher" that told a student he could go to jail if he said anything negative about our smuck President, she still has a job.. How is that for accountability?

I did a double-take when I read that language in the report. I couldn't believe that's how Terry interpreted the comments he received.

All I know is this. I was one of the participants in the group meeting with Terry, held at the Govt Center on the 5th floor. There were about 8 or 9 of us in the room with him.

When this subject came up about press coverage, I know I said that most of the news is negative. Why did I say that? Because most of the news that needs to be reported about CMS is because they're doing something WRONG. NOT because the press takes a negative SPIN on what they report.

I think Terry got this totally wrong, especially when the report takes on the flavor that the press isn't "FAIR."

If the stories in the media are about negative issues, it's because CMS is still broken. Period.

And with all due respect to Dr. Morrison, I don't know who he thinks he is, that he is trying to "control" what kind of press coverage he receives as a result of the three audit reports.

The press/media doesn't work for him. And while I'm not supporting the generally left-leaning/liberal bias that so many organizations have in this town, I also don't appreciate his comments. It's not his place to tell others how to do their jobs or how to cover their stories.

I have invariably been impressed by the reporting -- as opposed to editorializing -- of ADH. If CMS has been put in an unfavorable light in the press -- she being the Observer's principal contact person with that entity -- I think it's due to CMS's performance and not to slanted or biased reportage.

Ann, I think you do a remarkable job for getting some "light" (which makes the roaches run) shown on CMS considering a team of 8 inverstigative reporters would have more than enough to write every day. I have been nose to nose with CMS adminstrations for over 20 years.

Celeste Smith can tell you stories that would make your hair curl. And luckily, some stories get out about some really great students in CMS. It is easy to go after what is broken. Many of my generation were in public education schools. Today schools have become part of the social services system. Why do we have to have character education? Why is there so much focus on tolerance, bullying, etc.? What has that got us? There are still incidents galore.

The bottom line is, the public school system with the help of the ever expanding federal government is attempting to brainwash the youth of today to get them in line with these eleitists who think they know what is best for everyone else but them and their group.

Ann, keep it up and try to get more reporters on the education beat. We ned an update on overcrowded classrooms. We need an update on experienced teachers run off mostly from trhe suburban schools in the attempt to close the achievement gap from the top.

Yes, the white student test scores topped out 2 years ago and have been going down since.

Excerpts from a piece Ann did earlier this year from Reno before Morrison left for CMS:

...Andrew Barbano, a labor activist and Reno-area newspaper columnist who is one of Morrison’s few on-the-record critics, compares Morrison to Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” a con artist who sweeps into town and bamboozles the locals. “Morrison has told the establishment what they want to hear,” Barbano says...

...Barbano, the newspaper columnist, and the president of the Reno/Sparks branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, questioned whether the graduation-rate surge that built Morrison’s reputation will disappear.

“I just don’t trust those numbers,” said NAACP president Lonnie Feemster.

Morrison says he doesn’t mind anger, as long as people will talk to him. He seems confident that he can make a personal connection.

what do they say if the heat it too hot in the kitchen get out? CO holds CMS accountable since CMS cannot be trusted. They have studies that tell them that. Now Heath cannot take the truth or honest results? This is not looking good after such a short time at the helm. Ann your independent views are valued by majority in the community.

I think the media is far too lenient towards CMS. There are so many problems in the district that never get reported unless they are "leaked." More positive coverage for CMS would be like lipstick on a pig. If you want positive coverage DO something positive.

I'd be happy to send Dr. Morrison my "Prepare for Greatness" bumper sticker that CMS handed out after the 2005 failed bond referendum. Or, perhaps CMS can launch another PR billboard campaign? What ever happened to the kid headed to Broadway on 485?

Sorry Heath , but this is not starting to look very good. You can control some of the direction within CMS , BUT you cannot control the educated public. The press reports the good and bad data thats public. If your not accountable then this may not be the best position for you. Ann you keep holding CMS accountabl with your HONEST reporting of data. Keith W. Hurley

Yep this is a case of that nasty Broad Virus creeping back into our system (but did it ever really leave?)

LinkedIn for Terry Abbott

Chairman at Drive West CommunicationsCommunications consultant at The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems.....working to provide communications support to Broad Academy fellows and Broad Academy graduates who go on to become …

I never comment on these articles beause I don't want to stoop to the levels of the pittifuly bored housewives that troll here. Tonight however, I just can't hold back. Ann, I get it. We have met several times and I know your a nice woman and a talented journalist. However, anybody who doesn't see right through this mizerable article and can't realize that Ann Donn Helms is payed to write articles every day evoking negative reactions about CMS is stupider than the drop outs we are fighting to get back into schools. This is a ridiculous article. I sit up every day and see articles pointing out how awful CMS is for this and that. The fact is, I have seen first hand that every single department and school is full of people working thier butts off for the students (black, white or whatever color). Meanwhile Ann and you mizerable housewife trolls sit at home and comment here complaining about the same junk. Walk away and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. STOP WHINING AND GET YOUR TAIL INTO A SCHOOL. TUTOR A KID. JUST STOP BEING A USELESS PIECE OF TRASH IN SOCIETY. I just cant take you people anymore. Ugh.

For starters...1. Your is spelled you're.2. Mizerable is spelled miserable.3. Your (not you're) command of a comma needs a little work.4. Bored housewives is a discriminatory statement that suggests a lack of cultural understanding and gender sensitivity.5. Stupider isn't a word.6. And dare I go on...

4:05, about a decade ago, some consultant was getting a lot of national mileage telling school districts it takes six or seven positive articles for each negative one to change the district's public perception. Don't know where he got that calculation.

6:47, you are correct to some degrees. Much like you can point to excellent students graduate from all CMS high schools every year. But there are enough cases/exceptions to warrant "shining the light" on them to make changes.

It is obvious CMS suffers from many of the same things all urban school systems do. However, CMS is still enough suburban coverage that focusing on the urban nature shortchanges the suburban schools' challenges. For one, should classrooms be so full that kids have to rush to have a seat and that the teacher is unable to walk around and help individual students? Should CMS be totally ignoring this class of students whose academic performance scores have been falling the last 2 years? Anyway, if you have not read the audit reports, it would pay you to.

But as for me, I have served in almost every parent/volunteer role in this school system for the last 20 + years. I have seen this school system fall from grace like a meteor entering the earth's atmosphere.

Sadly, the public education system has been cooped for a social services machine and never ending taxpayer funded trough for educrats and the like that hide behind the feds and misinterpretations state laws.

We are rapidly losing the premise of what made America great, hard honest work, diligence, and perseverance.

6:47- Hopefully you dont use the CMS education system. Clearly you dont or you would be more knowledgable. With your spelling you may need to go spend some time at a CMS school. I am not a housewife either. I am a white professional male who pays over $50,000 a year in taxes to support such entities like CMS.

Interesting point Ann about the positive to negative story ratio to tip favorability perceptions, would be neat to see what evidence he was basing the 6:1 ratio on.

After all, there are all sorts of positive CMS articles written almost every day in the sports section and other places, I wonder if those types of articles factor into the equation? I'm guessing they do but with lesser weight.

It would seem that larger districts would need a bigger ratio than smaller districts, if research showed CMS could tip the scales at an 8:1 ratio, I imagine Union County schools could tip at, say, a 5:1 ratio.

5 years from now, ratios, fractions and whether or not the media is kind to CMS will matter about as much then as it does today or 5 years ago.

CMS has a 75% graduation rate.

CMS has a 24 point achievement gap that by projections based on past gains will take 15+ years to close.

“Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.” – Douglas Adams

Put 15 people in a circle with paper and crayons, all looking at a small table with a bowl of fruit and a bottle of wine next to the fruit. Have each person draw what they see.

You will get 15 different perceptions of the subject matter; from abstract to fine detail.

Heath, you have your perceptions, the media has theirs and I can assure you there are thousands of different parental perceptions out there so just do your job to the best of your ability and let's move on.

12:15, I don't believe any of the public who comment on this blog blames the teachers. If so, that is like number 15 item on a 14 item list (you get it). Our teachers are in a no win situation here where they are the last ones the administrators believe if it comes to some disagreement. Students who assault teachers are put right back into the classroom. Illiterate baby mommas screaming at the top of their lungs always overrule fact and the teachers' positions. Administrators regularly change grades to get students graduated. So you see, you will rarely see criticism form those of us who know what goes on in classrooms and schoolhouses.

"Blame the teacher" is a popular game by the community organizers to deflect the lack of responsibility the family unit has with raising their children. Politicians latch onto it because they get a vocal but illiterate base to help them push through more taxes aided and abetted by the liberal press. Lastly, teachers do bear the brunt of the losses when the politicians try to decrease the influence of teacher unions who use many tricks to prevent their loss of union dues.

Write the decimal as a percent..47 students receiving free and reduced lunch = ?

Write the fraction as a percent.3/10 is what percent of white students in CMS?

CMS has a 24 point achievement gap that by projections based on past gains will take 15 years to close. How many points should CMS close each year over the next 15 years to successfully close the achievement gap?

52% of students on FRL out of 148,000 students is what number?

The price of a yearly education in the suburbs is $4,500 per year. The price of an education at an urban school is $12,000 per year. What is the percent increase between a suburban and urban education?

There are 3 Black, 2 White, 2 Hispanic and 3 Asian teachers applying for a job at a project LIFT school. What is the probability that a non-black teacher will be hired by CMS' HR Dept.?

Write 55 million in scientific notation.

Draw a flow chart that shows CMS' student assignment plan bus routes.

School bus A travels a constant speed of 80 mph in a parallel direction for 1.5 hours to get a kid to school. School bus B travels a constant 75 mph in a horizontal direction for 2.0 hours to get a kid to school. School bus C travels a constant 79.8 mph in a zigzag direction for .75 hours to get a kid to school. What is the total distance traveled by all three school buses?

Based on CMS history, what is the probability that Dr. Morrison will still be around in 5 years?

School board member Rhonda Lennon spins one full rotation in her Char-Meck. government dais chair. How many degrees did Rhonda spin?

Reverend Tate spins out of his Char-Meck. government dais chair. What is the centrifugal force required for Rev. Tate to spin into orbit?

How many Education Lottery tickets have to be sold to make $55,000,000.00?

In 5 years, I envision Dr. Morrison eating a half empty bowl of Fruit Loops while drinking a full bottle of wine at a small table out on a cow field in Nebraska. Ann is in the background with a pitchfork and a CO branding iron.

CMS Chief Communications Officer Kathryn Block is indebted to the Broad Foundation for the $100,000 plus direct subsidy to her pay check the past couple years. Block proved her ability to know which facts to omit from Board of Education reports she prepared skillfully keeping the Board of Education, Charlotte Observer and others off the trail of real news. When CMS stops fabricating reality because it understands the community does not buy the "prevarication", then community trust may begin to be earned by CMS. This isn't the first time a CMS paid for report was skewed somewhat to soften the truth. We want LaTarzja!

Yes, almost every story that comes out in this paper is negative. It is reported that way because the paper figures they are pleasing the 1% of the population that responds to these stories online, which is also almost entirely negative. That's not rocket science. That's just the truth. We'll see how well that goes when people have to pay. Noone will pay to read the negative and none of those who are negative will pay to do so. Great call.

If you are concerned about effective communications, I don't know that a 56 page report starts you out on the right foot. And if you are concerned about negativity, it seems odd to have that report go on for 45 pages about problems - especially AFTER the Superintendent has already made a change in leadership in the department.

The few recommendations that were there were boilerplate and obvious like Appoint a Chief Communications Officer, Develop a Strategic Communications Plan, Improve Morale, Continue Outreach.... And the "Strategic Plan" recommendations were mainly tactical - like a calendar, project planning, event planning, assigning specific tasks, demanding cooperation.

11:47I grew up before the internet and I don't recall events like the Vietnam War, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the resignation of Richard Nixon, and the Iran hostage crisis being reported on TV or in the newspaper in positive ways. I spent a great deal of time under my desk in elementary school during bomb drills in case the Russians attacked. As far as positive news, I do remember a man landing on the moon which was really exciting and represented all that was possible with an American education. If you think people are being unduly critical regarding the state of education today, then you are very young or haven't been paying attention. If you want news fluff controlled by the state, feel free to move to North Korea. Public education in urban America is in a state of emergency. If you don't think so, than I suggest you make an unscheduled visit to a local school you wouldn't send your own children to and take a good look-see at some of the hard data.

11:47If you want positive news, the only reason CMS isn't doing as poorly as other urban school systems is due to the fact that the suburbs haven't been able to completely bail out of the system. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know this. There are plenty of successful parents who send their children to successful CMS schools. There are also CMS schools that compete head-to-head with some of Charlotte's most elite private schools. The problem is, there are fewer and fewer CMS schools available to parents who place a high value on education. Viable options in CMS are limited.

Harding IB was a viable option in west Charlotte before CMS killed it.

NWSA located in west Charlotte is still a viable option as long as the HR Dept. stays away from it.

Cato Middle College is an awesome opportunity located in East Charlotte. What a bargain. What a deal. Credits earned here transfer to all NC state universities. Why half of kids crammed into high schools in south Charlotte aren't here, I don't know.

Our 2 cents a day is now going to cost us about 33 cents a day? This is certainly positive news for CMS. I guess we can all tune into CMS news for the latest and most balanced stories. On the other hand, it's possible the only thing this will accomplish is keeping posters like 6:47 off of here. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Gold star to anyone who can summarize CMS' 45 page Employee Engagement Survey. People go to college to come up with this? And WHY does it matter that 46% of respondents were white? When math goobers have no clue how to effectively communicate information to an average school board member. You lost me around the 27th chart which means you lost half of the school board around the 21st chart. Or, perhaps your goal was to make the CMS student placement office look phenomenally competent? Ok, you're tied for 1st place with the folks who came up with the 5 minute nucleosome IPad demo.

Conclusion: More than 50% of all employees participated in the survey with representation of more than 50% of each respondent group with the exception of School Support Staff. Seventy-six percent of employees who responded are engaged or highly engaged in their work in CMS. Shared values (3.8) was the strongest factor that influences engagement, with communication (3.34) and feedback and recognition (3.29) being the two weakest factors. Generally, the majority of employees rated items referencing their workplace or school more positively than items referencing the district office. Items about district office communicating clear direction, expectations, decision- making processes and explanation were the lowest survey items.

Hey RePete I mean Heath Broadie , This is now public data. Your first 4 months on the job and I have your grade a large F. That right I am not afraid to hold you back like CMS is. Throw the Broad playbook out with Cam Newtons pal itsnot working.

Sad that negative stories are not editorials but reports of actual CMS actions and activities. What makes the stories negative is the actions of CMS itself, not the writers. CMS Communications is paid to spin bad into good...this is PR 101. The free press has a duty to the community... not to CMS.

The Broad Foundation wants a better business approach to education so why then would Broad Graduate Kathryn Block be appointed Communications Chief? The Broad Foundation invested a lot of funding in Block and her CMS pay check...now Block is Chief Communications Officer? The agenda is clear. Dr. Morrisson is preparring to dish out the Kool Aid with CMS's new Kool Aid Queen!

Looks likevHeath will fit in well in the Greatvstatecof Meckenburg. Harry tries to have a taxpayer fired for criticicizing him in an email, Geroger Dunlapbsaid in a BoCC Meeting that commissioners should P, and I paraphrase,"do something about posters who made remarks in thevObserver critical of hom and the manager, Foxxy throws hissy fits regularly. It seems like a common theme: Charlotte, Meck County and CMS are not faring too well wjhen compared to other metro areas in the South, so shot the messenger.

Wiley, I'd assume the blog is part of the digital subscription deal. You could either visit it 15 times a month free or pay the price -- which doesn't seem all that unreasonable to the person who provides the content and wants to keep getting paid for doing so :-)